Drupal Morgan Hansen LIS 644 Technology Evangelist Talk March 31, 2011
Presentation Agenda What Drupal Is How Drupal Works Why Libraries Should Use Drupal
What Drupal Is
“Drupal is an open source content management system. It allows folks like me—who don't much enjoy getting down into the weeds of code writing, but very much enjoy thinking about how to organize and present stuff on the web — with a set of world-class tools that don't cost a thing except lots and lots of your time and attention.” (Nelson, “Some Thoughts on Drupalization”) Using a content management system means that the content of the website is separated from formatting which means, "you can more easily change either without having to recode your entire Web site.” (Wiersma, “Building Online Content and Community with Drupal”)
How Drupal Works Modules
“Modules are sets of features that can be added or removed, depending on what the user needs” (Becker, “Adventures in Drupal” 8,500+ Modules in 45+ categories currently available for download on the Drupal website Modules of interest to libraries
How Drupal Works Themes
Control the formatting and aesthetic look of the website Modules can be downloaded from Drupal’s website and used as is (“out of the box”) or customized
How Drupal Works – WYSIWYG Editor What You See Is What You Get Editor – Allows staff to edit content much like they would edit a Word document
How Drupal Works – User Accounts Site administrator(s) can give privileges to different users/group of users
Why Libraries Should Use Drupal
Relieves bottleneck of webmaster - WYSIWYG editor allows staff with limited/no coding knowledge to add content to the webpage Using Drupal, “increased the number of voices on our website from three (the eBranch staff) to 80 plus. These staff members range from shelvers to branch librarians and department heads. They were given training on blogging and moderation of comments. Customers are also given a variety of ways to contact library staff and provide input on library services through contact forms, blog comments, and feedback on options for materials suggestions.” (Lillevig et al, “Innovating Community Conversations…” Open Source = FREE!! Many modules allow Web 2.0 capacities like tags, comments, etc Web-based administration – can edit pages, settings, etc from anywhere you have an internet connection
Libraries That Use Drupal For a much fuller list, visit http://drupalib.interoperating.info/library_sites or http://groups.drupal.org/node/13473
Waukegan Public Library (http://beta.waukeganpl.org) Illinois Service Resource Center (http://www.isrc.us) Hunter College Libraries (http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/) Ann Arbor District Library – (http://www.aadl.org/catalog) Allen County Public Library (http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/) Darien Public Library (http://www.darienlibrary.org/) Palos Verdes Library District (http://www.pvld.org/) Stowe Free Library (http://stowelibrary.org/)
For More Information Websites Drupal’s Website: http://drupal.org Drupal Group for Librarians: http://groups.drupal.org/libraries Drupalib (“A place for library drupallers to hang out”) http://drupalib.interoperating.info/ Journal Articles ALA Library Technology Reports Volume 44, Issue 4 – Drupal in Libraries: http://alatechsource.metapress.com/content/l3340t690354/? p=72b4a281ea4848bfac50868c8922cbfe&pi=21 Becker, D. A. Adventures in Drupal: Designing a Library Website Using a CMS. Online v. 34 no. 5 (September/October 2010) p. 19-21 Lillevig, G., et. al., Innovating Community Conversations through Online Tools. Texas Library Journal v. 86 no. 2 (Summer 2010) p. 55-7 Nelson, W. Some Thoughts on Drupalization. Searcher v. 18 no. 5 (June 2010) p. 7-11 Wiersma, G. Building Online Content and Community with Drupal. Collaborative Librarianship v. 1 no. 4 (2009) p. 169-71